Various different types of coverings exist for placement in architectural openings, such as windows, doors, archways and the like. Such coverings include blinds and shades. Many shades, for instance, comprise a fabric covering that is placed in an architectural opening and includes a mounting assembly that not only mounts the shade within the opening, but also provides a control mechanism for raising and lowering the shade as desired. For instance, the control mechanism may comprise a drawstring or an electric motor.
Some shade assemblies include rollers that are rotatably mounted, usually in a horizontal orientation, across the top of the architectural opening. A shade material, such as a roller sheet shade, is attached to the roller. Rotating the roller in one direction causes the shade to extend in order to cover the architectural opening and rotating the roller in the opposite direction causes the shade to retract so as to reveal the architectural opening.
Shade assemblies that include a rotating roller, often referred to as roller shades, are very popular with consumers. Roller shades, for instance, are easy to operate and are very compact, especially when the shade is in a fully retracted position. However, conventional roller shades are often only formed using a single type of shade material and thus, only provide a single shade configuration for covering the architectural openings within which the shade is installed. As a result, such roller shades significantly limit the ability of a consumer to customize the shade configuration of his/her roller shade based on desired aesthetics and/or desired lighting effects.
Accordingly, an improved roller shade assembly that provides for multiple different shade configurations would be welcomed in the technology.